Rythian Possessed
by EmilyArtypants
Summary: Emily has been living for four weeks with Zoey, Rythian and Teep, but now something is wrong. Rythian is acting strange, and Zoey and Emily have to help him. Armed with chocolate (long story), the girls have to rescue Rythian, even when he is fighting them every inch of the way...
1. Chapter 1

"Where are you from, exactly?" Emily sighed. She'd answered that question a million times already. "Canada." she said, leaning over the crafting table. She'd come here just over a month ago, and Zoey still didn't believe her. "Does that mean you live in an igloo?"

Emily resisted the urge to kick Zoey, who had some odd ideas about Canadians. "No. And I don't put maple syrup on everything either." she added, to head off that question. Zoey had some strange theories about Canadians, but Emily hadn't gotten up the nerve to ask about her theories about British cooking yet. From what she'd heard, it was really bad, although she'd also heard that the British didn't think so.

Zoey and Emily were inside what could be called a house, assuming that houses could be made out of dirt, cobblestone, wood and a block of wool at the same time. They'd had to throw it together quick.

They were on an errand which -due to definitely-not-on-purpose poor planning- had taken longer than they'd thought it would. Their inventories were full of jungle wood and cocoa beans, which they were planning to grow and make chocolate out of. They hadn't originally planned anything, but both of them really wanted to get away from their home for a while. Their home was in a desert, with Rythian and Teep. Emily had always (if "always" can mean about four weeks) felt like an outsider, but Zoey was a good friend. Despite her views on Canadians.

The monsters made noises outside, but Zoey and Emily didn't mind; they were just one more excuse to not go back yet. Rythian had been acting… odd, like he wasn't actually himself. Ravs wasn't too upset; "He'll get over it, you'll see.", but Zoey was really worried. Teep had left a while ago, which was a major hint.

Zoey had finally left because Rythian had completely lost it and hit her. Emily had followed her, wondering what had gotten into Rythian. He was her favourite Youtuber, but then this had happened. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to be here anymore.

The sun slowly rose, and Zoey and Emily slowly took down their shelter. They weren't sure what would happen when they got back, but Emily was willing to bet that either Rythian would act like he hadn't noticed, or he would lose it again. They would be incredibly lucky if it was the first one, and in deep trouble if it was the second.

They approached the village of the village cautiously, almost like they were trying to sneak in.

"And where have you been?" Rythian never shouted, which was scary. "Getting cocoa beans?" Emily was so nervous that it sounded like a question. "And who's idea was it?" Oh, crap, that meant he was thinking about punishment…

"Mine." Emily said. Zoey opened her mouth and Emily kicked her. She shut it again. Rythian looked carefully between the two of them, then he said "Emily, I am willing to let it go this time, but next time there will be… consequences." Emily nodded. She didn't like the sound of that pause. Or the tone of the word "consequences".

What's gotten into him? Emily wondered. She and Zoey had discussed possibilities the night before, and the only thing they'd agreed on was "something magic" and, unfortunately, the only person who really understood that stuff was Rythian.


	2. Chapter 2

Zoey and Emily placed a bunch of jungle wood and placed cocoa pods on the blocks. Zoey showed Emily how to craft the remainder into chocolate, and in a fit of excitedness they had both eaten more of it than was really smart. After a while, Emily started to feel the headache that signalled the end of her sugar high, and they both began to calm down.

"That was really not a good idea." Emily said weakly, worn out from laughing. "I can't believe you've never done that before!" Zoey said, the exclamation mark an indication that the sugar hadn't yet worked it's way out of her system. "The closest I've ever come to that is when my friend and I ate an entire box of cookies." Emily admitted, still smiling, although her headache was getting worse.

"You shared it? That's nothing." Zoey stated. Emily agreed. "And just think! We can do this every day!" Zoey continued. Emily shook her head. "Let's not. Besides obvious hazards to our health, it won't feel as good if we do it often." Zoey had to admit she had a point. They agreed on once a week, maximum.

"We don't want to become sugar junkies." Emily said, then, unclear as to whether Zoey was familiar with the term, added "Sugar addicts." Zoey collapsed into a fit of giggles, and Emily stared at her. "Alright, how much did you eat?" she asked, but Zoey just began a fresh wave of giggling. Emily rolled hr eyes.

They sat there for several minutes before Emily gave up her attempts to stifle Zoey's laughter. It was peaceful -relatively speaking- sitting there outside of the village, with Zoey laughing her head off and no acting-strangely Rythian in sight… hang on. "Is that Teep?"

The dinosaur ran up to them, obviously panicking about something. He pulled out a book and quill and wrote; RYTHIAN NEEDS HELP! COME! He barely gave Zoey and Emily enough time to read it before running off. Emily was confused and worried; What had happened to Rythian? Did this have something to do with why he'd been acting weird? Why was Teep here- he'd left a while ago.

Teep led them through the streets of the village to an alley, where they found Rythian, out cold. "What happened to him?" Teep shrugged, and he helped the two of them half carry, half drag Rythian in the direction of the hospital. Partway there, Rythian started to stir.

They stopped walking, and Rythian opened his eyes, although it didn't look like he was comprehending what he saw. He pushed Zoey and Emily away, standing shakily on his feet. The blank look on his face unnerved Emily; it was like there was nobody inside his mind.

"Rythian! Are you okay?" Zoey walked up to Rythian, standing in front of him. Immediately, the look on Rythian's face changed, but it still had the blank quality that had made Emily nervous. Zoey barely had time to scream.


	3. Chapter 3

Emily and Teep stood in the hospital, watching over Zoey and Rythian. Emily couldn't understand why Rythian had attacked Zoey, but she knew there must be something seriously wrong with him. Emily looked over the past twenty minutes in her mind, trying to wring one drop of sense from them.

She and Teep had both been caught by surprise, but Teep had kept his head, more or less. He had knocked Rythian out, but Zoey had already suffered quite a bit of damage. Emily had managed to get Zoey into the hospital, although her friend had passed out shortly after the attack. They had also brought Rythian in, and Emily insisted on tying him to the bed in case he woke up. Teep didn't complain.

Emily got up and decided to hunt through the place for a healing potion. It was better than just sitting there. Unfortunately, her search only revealed a dozen empty bottles and one potion that looked like rotten grape juice. Emily was willing to bet that it wasn't a healing potion.

Sitting down, Emily raised a question that she was half afraid to ask. "So… Teep? What happened?" Teep pulled out his book and quill and wrote for a little while. Then he held up the page for Emily to read. I CAME HERE TO SEE HOW THINGS WERE GOING, AND I TURNED INTO AN ALLEY TO SEE RYTHIAN ON THE GROUND. I REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE HAPPENED. OR WHY RYTHIAN IS LIKE THIS.

Emily nodded, and they both turned to one of the beds as Zoey gave a moan and opened her eyes. "What happened?" she asked feebly. Emily explained what she had seen, what had happened while Zoey had been unconscious (not much), then showed her friend Teep's writing. Zoey tried to nod, then said "Ow…" as the simple movement hurt so much that she thought she might pass out again.

"No… no chance of a healing potion?" Zoey gasped. Emily shook her head; "I looked, and there aren't any." Zoey groaned again and said "Secret… chest…" Then she fell unconscious. Teep and Emily looked at each other, then Emily stood up. "Secret chest, eh?" Emily asked, and she started digging up the sandstone floor, glad Zoey wasn't awake to hear her say "Eh".

"Yes! I found it!" Emily held up a pair of healing potions and looked at the mess she'd made. Replacing the floor as she went, Emily walked over to the beds and poured one of the potions on Zoey. Zoey gave a cough, then sat up, rubbing her eyes. "Thanks. Should we do Rythian?"

"I'm not sure. Would this cure whatever's gone wrong with his mind?" Emily examined the bottle in her hand. Zoey considered this, then said, "Probably not. It restores your health bar, right? And this… thing isn't affecting his health bar." Emily nodded and dumped the healing potion on Rythian.

He shook his head as if to clear it and tried to sit up, but the ropes held him down. "What the-" Rythian started to struggle against the ropes, panic showing on his face. Zoey tried to calm him down, but that just made him freak out more, and Emily finally had to get a potion and knock him out again.

The three exchanged glances; this wasn't good. Teep bent over to check the knots that held Rythian, and the dinosaur made a noise of surprise. He motioned for Zoey and Emily to look. The ropes had held and the knots had stayed tied, but Rythian had bent the metal frame of the bed. "This has to be magical." Emily said, "I don't think anyone normal could do that."

"What do we do?" Zoey asked, her voice making it plain that she was freaking out. Emily took a deep breath and said; "We should look through the books. Maybe we'll find something to help. Teep can stay here and watch Rythian." Emily took one last look at Rythian before she and Zoey left. He looked vacant, like there was nobody home…


	4. Chapter 4

Since they had started living near the village, Zoey and Rythian had made plenty of additions to the library. These included several shelves of magic books, and Zoey and Emily sat down to read their way through them. Both girls were fast readers, but there were quite a few books, it was getting dark, and neither if them had gotten a lot of sleep the night before.

The shelves grew emptier and the stack of read books grew higher, and they started to lose hope. They had already been through the books on things like magical illnesses, and they had found nothing. Emily became haunted by a fear that she had missed something, that the one vital piece of information was in one of the books in the "read" pile. Zoey had to keep pinching herself to stay awake, and was afraid that she would fall asleep.

Finally, just after midnight, Zoey gave a gasp; "Emily! I think I've found it!" Forgetting her tiredness, Emily dropped her book to the floor with a thump an ran to kneel behind Zoey. "It says here… oh my god! Rythian's been possessed!" Emily reading over her shoulder, Zoey began to state the details out loud.

"A demon or other evil spirit… he was still fighting it, that's why he was acting strangely… will use it's victim to accomplish it's own purposes… Rythian passed out because it finally won him over!" Zoey looked up at Emily, who was surprised at herself for being so calm. "Does it say anything about getting the evil thingy out?"

Zoey flipped a couple of pages, then started reading again. "Something to stimulate his mind… and something to sort of speed up his thoughts…" Zoey turned the page over and sighed. "It doesn't have anything more specific." Emily looked thoughtful. "Maybe it doesn't need to be more specific. Tell me; does Rythian still hate Endermen?"

"How are we going to catch an Enderman?" "I don't know. Maybe we'll get lucky." "Sure. And what's the chocolate for?" "Something to speed up his thoughts, right? We're going to give him a sugar rush." "Okay. Cool." "And don't eat any of the chocolate; I don't know how much we need."

"Aw, you're no fun." Zoey complained as they walked back to the hospital. Zoey was holding the book, and Emily had some chocolate in her inventory. They were both wondering how they would catch an Enderman. Then Emily had a idea; "Hey, maybe we don't need to catch an Enderman. We could take Rythian to one, instead." Zoey considered this. "I'm not actually sure that's easier… wait a second; what's this?"

The doors were missing from the hospital. Emily and Zoey cautiously peeked inside. Rythian and Teep were gone. "Oh, no…" Emily said, which pretty much summed up the situation. Zoey looked on the verge of panic again when Emily said "We'll need to track them down. Put that book in your inventory and take some of those healing potions."

Emily leaned down to examine the sand. There were two sets of footprints right on top; hers and Zoey's. Then there was another set of human footprints going off in a completely different direction. Hang on, where were Teep's prints? Emily looked back inside the hospital. Teep definitely wasn't there.

Emily tried to remember all she could from watching crime shows on TV and squatted down to look at Rythian's prints more closely. The right footprint was much deeper than the left one. Maybe Rythian was carrying Teep?

Zoey came out of the hospital holding several healing potions. She put them in her inventory. "Which way did they go?" Emily pointed. "That way. And I think Rythian was carrying Teep." They started walking, taking turns to check the prints they were following. Emily was looking around at the mobs, trying to ignore how terrified she was of the night. Zoey was wishing they were better armed. Two stone swords are not the best of weapons.

Soon the prints reached a jungle and vanished inside. Emily swallowed. "I'm not Teep, I can't track people in there." Zoey shrugged. "We have to." Then both girls walked into the jungle.


	5. Chapter 5

Teep struggled, but Rythian just squeezed him harder. Rythian was carrying him over one shoulder, and Teep had no idea where they were going. The jungle branches slapped him in the face as Rythian walked through the trees, intent on reaching… somewhere.

Teep hoped that Emily and Zoey would follow them, although he realized it might be hard for them to find the trail in the jungle. In an attempt to help them, Teep bit a passing branch and broke it. He did it again later on. That had better be enough…

It wasn't as hard to follow a trail in the jungle as Emily had thought, but it was still plenty difficult. Both Zoey and Emily carefully looked over their path ahead for flattened grass or bent branches, and Emily was terrified that they were on the wrong track altogether.

Then Zoey found a broken branch. A piece of it had been ripped off and dropped a few feet ahead. Emily picked it up and showed Zoey the teeth marks on the bark. "And I'll bet you anything that those marks aren't human." "Teep!" Zoey said. "We're on the right path after all!"

"Yeah." Emily said, relieved, "And that means he's alive and conscious, which is a good thing." Still happy that Teep wasn't dead, both girls continued to follow the trail of snapped branches Teep had left for them. Soon they reached a clearing of sorts. The ground was made of cobblestone placed in as close to a circle as you can make in Minecraft. And sitting in the middle of the circle was-

"Rythi-" Zoey tried to call out his name, but Emily put a hand over her mouth. Rythian heard, however, and he turned around. Emily tried her best not to scream, and it almost didn't work. Rythian's eyes were bright red, and there was a terrible sort of triumph in his expression. Teep was nowhere to be seen.

Rythian stood up and started walking towards them, and Zoey screamed. Emily tried to remember the plan; Enderman, chocolate, get the demon out… "Zoey! Keep him occupied!" Emily hated leaving her friend, but she needed to get Rythian close to an Enderman to try and get a reaction out of him.

On second thought, she wasn't going anywhere. Rythian had raised his hand and now there was something holding her back, ropes so dark they looked like holes in the very fabric of the universe. Emily struggled, hearing Zoey screaming as if from a long way away, but the ropes drained her energy. Trying her best to think, Emily reached into her inventory and pulled out something at random, hoping it would help.

She was holding chocolate. Inspired, Emily shoved a handful into her mouth and swallowed. She felt the sugar high set in right away, seeming to counteract the energy draining effects of Rythian's restraints. She still needed to get loose, however, and Emily didn't see how she could do that. Rythian was pulling her slowly towards him, and Emily had the uncomfortable feeling that she was about to find out the hard way what had happened to Teep.

"Zoey!" Somehow, Emily's shout entered Zoey's paralysed mind and she started towards her friend. Emily shook her head and mouthed Enderman! Of course! Zoey turned, looking for the nearest Enderman. She started running, and she hit one of the tall mobs with one hand. It made a strange sound and teleported.

Zoey felt Rythian throw ropes around her, too, and she was also dragged closer. The energy draining worked much quicker on her, and Zoey fell asleep almost right away.

Emily saw the Enderman teleport away, and she got more chocolate out of her inventory just in case. She felt her sugar high wearing off, but she didn't dare eat any more of the chocolate, for fear there wouldn't be enough for Rythian. As she and Zoey were pulled closer, Emily tried to stall a bit, put off the inevitable.

Then, suddenly, the Enderman appeared right next to Zoey and it attacked her, dealing her several hearts of damage. Briefly, Rythian looked confused, and Emily seized her chance. Jumping forward, she jammed the chocolate into Rythian's mouth and kept her hand there so he couldn't spit it out. An even more confused look flickered across his face, then Emily blacked out.


	6. Epilogue

Emily opened her eyes and immediately regretted it; the sun was high in the sky and shining right into her face. "Emily! You're awake!" Zoey's face blocked the sun, the light making her red hair look like it was on fire. "Nnh… I guess so…" Emily said, before something splashed into her face. It was cool but not cold, and it seemed to be pink. Right away, Emily felt better, and she sat up, the light no longer painful to her eyes.

They were inside the cobblestone circle, and Rythian was sitting there, looking back to normal. "You alright?" Emily asked him. He nodded. "Thanks to you two. What did you do, exactly?"

Emily and Zoey explained the story from their point of view, and they asked him what had happened to Teep. Rythian looked thoughtful. "Chocolate? I would never have thought of that." Emily pointed out that he hadn't answered their question. Rythian looked guilty, "I- he's in here." Rythian tapped the side of his head. "I think I can get him out, but it might take a while."

"Huh? Teep's… inside your head?" Emily asked for clarification. "More or less. When I was possessed, I absorbed him." Emily shuddered. "Creepy." Zoey agreed.

They started walking back in the direction of the village, Rythian occasionally saying something to himself, or rather, Teep. "So… he can talk now?" Emily asked Rythian. She had assumed that Teep would still be mute. Rythian stepped around a tree. "Yes and no. He's still silent, but I can hear his thoughts."

Emily blinked. "Even creepier." Zoey gave a laugh.


End file.
